I grew up in the CRC, and am still here, along with my family. I'm married to Daryl, who has a construction business. I had a CPA license for 10 or so years, then I added EX to the front, and MOM to the back, so now I'm an EX CPA, MOM =). I am MOM to Duncan, Ian and Samantha. Our family also owns a raspberry farm, and in the summers we get to work out there together.
thanks Paul. your post brought tears to my eyes... it was beautiful insight, and I will pray that it will not be soon forgotten, but that it's the little mustard seed, that I will believe will grow into a huge fruitful tree structure.
btw, what are the current requirements to be eligible as a rep for classis, to be on the current council? a brief synopsis would be great, or if you can direct me to whatever governing documents states them.
may the LORD bless you as a leader in implementing the necessary structural changes in our denomination, for His Kingdom...
I will be honest, my husband and I have not given much to ministry shares, and what you mention is one reason:
When individuals suspect that these structures are resistant to influence, cynicism rises and motivation to serve wanes. This threat is like a hardening of the arteries for our church and should be resisted ...
I struggle with paying substantial salaries to our leaders... no matter how bright and gifted they might be, and therefore am not a cheerful giver when it goes to ministry shares...
on Fri. of last week, one of my clients paid me, and I felt the Spirit nudge "this time Bev, tithe to the ministry shares."
This morning, as I was thinking about the "long" prayer question some more, I was reminded of a very long prayer, one that lasted over 100 years. The Moravians in 1727 started praying 24/7 in one hour shifts known as the Hourly Intercession, and this continued for over 100 years... through it they pioneered lay missionaries, sending the first lay missionaries out in 1732 or so... in 1780's William Carey, the father of modern missions, read an article about what the Moravians were doing and so he went to his baptist brethren, and asked "why can't we do what the Moravians have done"... it wasn't well received at first, and it was several more years before his mission work began with the support of his denomination...
may the fire on the altar never go out... Lev. 6:13
Thanks Paul... in agreement on prayer being our chief work... so then that is where we should be spending significant time and energy, but I'm not finding that to be the case yet.
I have found people are very sensitive about their prayer life - they know they should be praying, and yet often are not and so feel guilty when it's mentioned which unfortunately seems to make them more resistant - I can sense almost immediately when I bring up prayer with someone, whether they "get it" or not. They will say things like, "that's your gift, not mine." or "that's interesting" then change the subject or some other "avoidance" technique or intellectual argument. If they "get it", we usually end up talking and praying together for an extended time. Do I push it? All I have to do is mention it and usually within a few seconds, their response will clue me in on where they're at with their prayer life. I don't do this to judge anyone - I love to talk about Jesus, and prayer will come up because it's a significant part of my life as part of my relationship with Him, and what I'm "busy" with when I'm asked if I'm busy. Through these conversations, I often gain insight to pray on their behalf. Does it make me better than them? No, I know what my prayer life was like before God graciously transformed it several years ago... it was a duty of 0-15 minutes a day, listing out my requests, maybe a little confession, praise, thanksgiving, but mostly requests... and a see You later God, maybe tomorrow, maybe not, depends if I remember and how busy/tired I am. My prayer life was pretty weak for a long time and He transformed it over several years, with several key experiences that changed prayer from duty to delight. It has made me a better believer in comparison to where I was.
It's my heart cry that prayer will be a delight instead of a duty for every believer, that we all learn to hear the Shepherd's voice clearly... I don't know how many times I get "confessions" of prayerlessness with many reasons... and it's really obvious when it comes to corporate prayer. I would be interested in doing a survey of how many crc churches have a regular night of prayer every week...
I keep asking God, "how long do I have to pray for prayer?" Pastors have no problem preaching a sermon on tithing/giving when the church's bank account balance is getting low... there's an objective tangible sign of a giving issue and so it's addressed (and the fact that their salary is involved just might have something to do with it =)... the sign of lack of prayer is not so obvious... but one you mentioned, fruitlessness in ministry, which is more difficult to recognize and address, and people tend to get very defensive when their program fails and you suggest that maybe we should spend more time in prayer- as i already shared, we are sensitive about our prayer life and "don't you dare suggest in any way that I don't pray" type attitude.
I'm pretty sure I've never heard a sermon that our prayer bank account is getting low, and it's time to step it up with prayer time (I don't like the results of my speculation on the reason for that). I just sense really hard ground as we are praying for break through with prayer, particularly in the conservative Christian culture, but hope i'm wrong.
As one author/pastor, Daniel Henderson, humorously puts it, our traditional corporate prayers are more like an "organ" recital. mostly praying for peoples organs; heart, lungs, health issues, I'm sure as a pastor you know what i mean.
The following is from his book "fresh encounters; experiencing transformation through united worship based prayer"
Our pastors minister in a prayerless, success - oriented culture.
"Man of prayer" no longer ranks high on the typical list of desirable traits for the local church pastor. Usually, the driven, over-achieving, "can-do" person is most admired in our society - and our churches. Recently, I was in Utah teaching a prayer seminar at a state-wide church leadership conference. After my session, a man approached m explaining that he was the chairman of the pastoral search committee for a congregation in that area. He pulled out a list of more than 85 desirable attributes for their next pastor. the inventory had been compiled through a recent survey of the congregation. many of the qualities centered on communication skills, management ability, pleasant personality, and strong pastoral care interests. Nowhere on the list was there any mention of the priority of prayer as an essential characteristic for the new pastor. American society tends to value strong, natural leadership, dynamic programming (and I would add dynamic personalities), entertaining services, and impressive technology. The idea of a pastor locked away in extended prayer does not strike the average churchgoer as a mark of effective (and I would add efficient) leadership. Some church members think it wastes time if the pastor spends energy attending prayer meetings. Many pastors realize this and decide not to go against the grain. Fresh Encounters; p 57-58, Nav Press, 2008.
so yes, prayer should be a quiet, unseen thing, but I'm not sure if it's happening at any substantial level, and the stress signs from the possible lack thereof are starting to become apparent (one sign being the "unhealthy culture in leadership") . Something is amiss. Are we willing to admit that might be part of the problem? or at least look into the possibility that it's a concern, or are we going to resist? In Moses' welcome speech, he shared how the pastor at the church in Korea spent 3 hrs/day in prayer... I think we would see significant change if we even have an hour/day (average) by every pastor/leader in the denom (survey results: 85% of pastors pray less than 15 min/day) http://www.worldwideprayer.com/pastorsstatistics.html ;
survey results of 1050 presbyterian and reformed pastors: 26% describe their relationship with Jesus as healthy as in having regular devotions and felt they were adequately fed spiritually
Are you familiar with Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians? They are some of my prayer heroes. I would love to see a study of them added to teaching our confessions =)
and I will check into what it takes to be involved at the classis level... again, thx for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to read mine.
That is encouraging... so I will encourage (and challenge) you back... I look forward to singing their next song in our church worship service =)!!
I recently suggested to the synod "contest" initiators, that maybe we could challenge our members to compose and write a worship song and the top ones would be published in the next song book, and also maybe be invited (with costs covered) to the next worship symposium to lead "their" song during worship.
I did not mean to sound critical, but only to encourage (and/or challenge) us all to keep moving to higher levels of worship, where Jesus is lifted up continually... "harp and bowl" worship (harp = music and bowl = prayers) based on Rev. 5:8. There are times the Holy Spirt "downloads" new songs as the worship team (not at our church, but at the local prayer center with diverse denominations) is singing... but these are usually in times of continual worship of 2 or more hours... when we have worshipped a straight 24/7 , we have had amazing testimonies of breakthrough...
I know God has a sense of humor and can use any song, Christian or secular to "speak" to someone's heart, so I do not want to limit Him by defining what's worship, because what is worship for one, isn't necessarily the case for the next depending on a multitude of reasons... One funny example of this in my life, was a few months ago, I was at a Hillsong United concert and before the concert they had misc. songs playing, and one was "All you need is love"... this struck me as funny (and the LORD emphasizing love to me), because our pastor had just emphasized the importance of love, with the point of without love, everything is a waste and fruitless...
So I am praying for the release of many new songs from your area, and our denomination... I see it as an untapped oil well, with rich "oil" that will flow forth via the Holy Spirit (I'm sure you know oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit)... You mention harnessing it correctly... with the Holy Spirit as your Guide and counselor, you can't go wrong... so keep listening to Him, and again, excited for what God is doing and going to do with this generation and looking forward to those new songs...
I too get a little skeptical/snarky when people use words like "surely", "clearly", and "thus", like it so obvious to anyone with a brain, and therefore a foregone conclusion, and you would have to be pretty dense to think anything other than what they have so "clearly" presented. +
=)
Aye Aye ban any from of the word "clear" for discussion...hahahaha...
I am so glad that God does not look at outward appearances but at the heart... let's try His way and ask for His eyes to see each other with and not use our human ways of "organizing" and defining each other... Let's ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in who should be selected for leadership positions as is done in Acts 13:1-3, and Acts 14:23... He WILL still do that if we would but pray, fast and listen....then obey...or is that just too mystical for us western trained intellectuals?
yes...I think in all the scriptural references, the leaders did a first round selection of possible "nominees", based on a number of criteria... then asked the Holy Spirit to further select, or in the case of Acts 6:3 by knowing/discerning who was filled with the Holy Spirit... so, now how do we tell who is filled with the Holy Spirit? often it seems it can be a popularity type contest or based on their business "success" or natural giftedness/abilities.... or some other indicator like ethnicity or intellect ("it will require our best minds and some solid study..." June 2011 Banner editorial; p10)... but we don't go into the Spirit filled question, or do we assume every believer is Spirit filled men and women of prayer? or do we specifically ask about their prayer life and their relationship with Jesus? I find many are quite defensive when asked specifically about their prayer life, if it's asked at all.
Our country (the US) has had the best and the brightest and look at the mess we have made... our denomination has had the best and the brightest, and here's another quote from the same editorial, p 10 again.... "The changes made to make our denomination more efficient have caused more problems than they have solved."
that is what happens when we are not Spirit led, and instead use our human understanding ( a business model) to run our denomination... we would have said all our leaders have been Spirit led, full of wisdom in the past, yet something's amiss...
My intent is not to be critical, my heart breaks for our denomination, I've been a part of it all my life...but we have some serious concerns where some things are not as it should be...
the best minds and spirit filled are not always synomynous... they can be, but we need the gift - discerning of the spirits, which is much more than just discernment...
after listening to the intro on Moses Chung, and Moses speech, that is what I'm talking about for selecting leaders....... the search committee said, "God spoke to us and said, this is the person..." after compiling a pool of potentials... then the confirmation of Moses, his mom's dream, his wife' dream (which was in an article I read somewhere), as well as my spirit resonating with his heart for prayer, I know he gets prayer... I have no doubt, God has him exactly where He wants him.
my very specific prayer is that God will raise up Spirit led men and women of prayer for leadership in our denomination.. many will say "of course prayer is important" and "try hard" to pray, but he gets it... so, when we try to orchestrate it through human "goals", we miss God's beautiful orchestration, or doubt it's God, because we might think, well, we're just trying to fulfill the mandate. God, help us all to hear You speak to us...
with all the talk of diversity and unity at Synod, here are two beautiful expressions that I would love to see happen at some level in our denomination... I'm praying into what that will look like, and waiting for God's leading to move forward in our community with this...but in the meantime enjoy, and be inspired!!
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FB1B9CNU this one is by a Baptist group in Houston, so " neighbors" to the Sunrise church... ...beautiful Easter dance with 2000 believers in downtown Houston... I think I cried the first dozen times I watched it..
I have been very encouraged by seeing young people (and in my case many in their 20's) with a heart to worship Him more...the local prayer center I am involved with, has 7-10 worship and prayer missionaries - most in their 20's - who spend 10-40 hours a week in worship and prayer...One friend in this age group was asked what she liked to do in her spare time...Her response was - "worship God", and she does.
I sense that God is putting a fire in this generations heart for worship, and that we, as families and churches, need to pray for Him to lead us into additional times of worship where this generation has the opportunity to express themselves under the direction of the Holy Spirit in the worship, instead of almost exclusively being directed by adults. I sense a "chomping at the bit" from the youth to be more involved in the worship. It is a very powerful experience to see how the Holy Spirit orchestrates a worship gathering, both through the planning (it's not just picking favorite songs), and then through His spontaneous promptings during the service, and to hear the testimonies of how the Holy Spirit "spoke" to different people in different ways through the worship, and often in the same song.
2 different people, within 15 minutes of each other, at 2 different gatherings expressed their excitement over an opportunity to worship for 2 hours - extended times of worship...again, I see this heart for worship being stirred up, particularly in this generation, but we have to ask the LORD for His guidance on what this will look like (the verse the LORD put on my heart this week is Is. 28:29 NKJV - This comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance)...
I know in our community we have an abundance of gifted musicians and I believe the reason is for increased worship. We need to steward these giftings, as in help them have opportunities to use them for the Kingdom... it reminds me of the tabernacle of David, where worship was going on day and night at the temple. In Acts 15, God shares that He is restoring David's tabernacle/tent (depending on version) - think Days of Elijah v2 - and these are the days of His servant, David, rebuilding a temple of praise! We are all hardwired - designed, with a need that what we do is meaningful, and worship is!
We have seen several beautiful ministries flow out of the prayer center that were birthed from the worship and prayer times... We have experienced incredible testimonies of Divine timing that could not be humanly orchestrated...the statistical probability of the convergence of events is basically impossible... we have testimonies of salvations and healings, we have seen abortion rates drop and adoptions double in our county, we have seen our unemployment rate be one of the lowest in the state, if not the lowest, we have seen Godly leaders elected in our county- in a state (WA) that is known for being very liberal, and one of the least churched states in the US, these were not easy wins, but Praise God, He is making them happen as we labor in prayer with Him, and offer up our hearts in worship to Him... and we have seen beautiful growth in believer's walk with the LORD, where their faith is becoming a delight instead of a duty...they're growing closer in their relationship with King Jesus... HALLELUJAH!!!
LORD, restore Your tabernacle of Praise, where Your Name is being lifted up 24/7...
One of the "spheres' we pray for specifically is for the family unit... the family is under intense attack from the enemy particularly the males (one of the answers to prayer is this new movie "Courageous" coming out by the same church that did Facing the Giants and Fireproof, it's about men taking up and walking in the authority of their God given roles), and every time the enemy can break up the family, keeping the God ordained family unit from a meaningful, Kingdom focused activity such as worshipping and praying together, he scores in some way. Look at the evening family meal, how rare that is in many homes... and yet studies have shown that is one of the key aspects to a healthy childhood.
My husband and I will fight for the honor to worship together as a family. We will also encourage them to find worship opportunities in addition to the Sunday services and allow them freedom to express their worship in our church. I am very thankful that our church incorporates the youth regularly into the service... my daughter (she's 5) will dance in the back of church - there's a little nook that she can dance freely in, so she's not distracting anyone... at other worship gatherings outside the CRC, the kids dance with flags and/or instruments or just dance. We have tables set up for kids to draw - not just busy work, but what we call "prophetic art" during the service as worship is going on... at one that is specifically for kids, they can sing at the mic. (there are some guidelines of course). We pray that as our kids are heading into the teen years, they will have experienced God via His Holy Spirit in many ways already (they already have amazing testimonies of promptings through scripture that the Holy Spirit helped them use for guidance in various situations, we share with them how God has helped us financially in unextpected ways, so "seeing" God work is pretty normal for them, I will be talking to someone and they will encourage me to share a confirmation of something the LORD has put on my heart earlier, or an answer to prayer, my daughter (5) will ask to drive by the casino so we can pray for all the people that are having their money "stolen", and that it will be a place where people pray to God instead). Kids' worship is very powerful, based on Ps. 8:2... out of the mouths of children and infants, I have ordained (strong) praise because of Your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger... it makes the enemy flee...
so, let's pray for Holy Spirit inspired opportunites in our services and outside our services, to increase the worship from children/youth. and also pray that the family unit will be strenghthened through worship time and prayer time together...
Sorry Ken, didn't even think about the political aspect... there are good things about each political group and there are negative things about each, so let's pray that God brings forth the goodness in each, and pushes back what is not from Him in each...that He purges, cleanses and redeems these systems of politics and the government...but of course, may He start with our hearts...
Posted in: Why Synod Needs Classis
thanks Paul. your post brought tears to my eyes... it was beautiful insight, and I will pray that it will not be soon forgotten, but that it's the little mustard seed, that I will believe will grow into a huge fruitful tree structure.
btw, what are the current requirements to be eligible as a rep for classis, to be on the current council? a brief synopsis would be great, or if you can direct me to whatever governing documents states them.
may the LORD bless you as a leader in implementing the necessary structural changes in our denomination, for His Kingdom...
I will be honest, my husband and I have not given much to ministry shares, and what you mention is one reason:
When individuals suspect that these structures are resistant to influence, cynicism rises and motivation to serve wanes. This threat is like a hardening of the arteries for our church and should be resisted ...
I struggle with paying substantial salaries to our leaders... no matter how bright and gifted they might be, and therefore am not a cheerful giver when it goes to ministry shares...
on Fri. of last week, one of my clients paid me, and I felt the Spirit nudge "this time Bev, tithe to the ministry shares."
Posted in: The Long Prayer
This morning, as I was thinking about the "long" prayer question some more, I was reminded of a very long prayer, one that lasted over 100 years. The Moravians in 1727 started praying 24/7 in one hour shifts known as the Hourly Intercession, and this continued for over 100 years... through it they pioneered lay missionaries, sending the first lay missionaries out in 1732 or so... in 1780's William Carey, the father of modern missions, read an article about what the Moravians were doing and so he went to his baptist brethren, and asked "why can't we do what the Moravians have done"... it wasn't well received at first, and it was several more years before his mission work began with the support of his denomination...
may the fire on the altar never go out... Lev. 6:13
Posted in: Classis: The Right Tool for Three Important Needs
Thanks Paul... in agreement on prayer being our chief work... so then that is where we should be spending significant time and energy, but I'm not finding that to be the case yet.
I have found people are very sensitive about their prayer life - they know they should be praying, and yet often are not and so feel guilty when it's mentioned which unfortunately seems to make them more resistant - I can sense almost immediately when I bring up prayer with someone, whether they "get it" or not. They will say things like, "that's your gift, not mine." or "that's interesting" then change the subject or some other "avoidance" technique or intellectual argument. If they "get it", we usually end up talking and praying together for an extended time. Do I push it? All I have to do is mention it and usually within a few seconds, their response will clue me in on where they're at with their prayer life. I don't do this to judge anyone - I love to talk about Jesus, and prayer will come up because it's a significant part of my life as part of my relationship with Him, and what I'm "busy" with when I'm asked if I'm busy. Through these conversations, I often gain insight to pray on their behalf. Does it make me better than them? No, I know what my prayer life was like before God graciously transformed it several years ago... it was a duty of 0-15 minutes a day, listing out my requests, maybe a little confession, praise, thanksgiving, but mostly requests... and a see You later God, maybe tomorrow, maybe not, depends if I remember and how busy/tired I am. My prayer life was pretty weak for a long time and He transformed it over several years, with several key experiences that changed prayer from duty to delight. It has made me a better believer in comparison to where I was.
It's my heart cry that prayer will be a delight instead of a duty for every believer, that we all learn to hear the Shepherd's voice clearly... I don't know how many times I get "confessions" of prayerlessness with many reasons... and it's really obvious when it comes to corporate prayer. I would be interested in doing a survey of how many crc churches have a regular night of prayer every week...
I keep asking God, "how long do I have to pray for prayer?" Pastors have no problem preaching a sermon on tithing/giving when the church's bank account balance is getting low... there's an objective tangible sign of a giving issue and so it's addressed (and the fact that their salary is involved just might have something to do with it =)... the sign of lack of prayer is not so obvious... but one you mentioned, fruitlessness in ministry, which is more difficult to recognize and address, and people tend to get very defensive when their program fails and you suggest that maybe we should spend more time in prayer- as i already shared, we are sensitive about our prayer life and "don't you dare suggest in any way that I don't pray" type attitude.
I'm pretty sure I've never heard a sermon that our prayer bank account is getting low, and it's time to step it up with prayer time (I don't like the results of my speculation on the reason for that). I just sense really hard ground as we are praying for break through with prayer, particularly in the conservative Christian culture, but hope i'm wrong.
As one author/pastor, Daniel Henderson, humorously puts it, our traditional corporate prayers are more like an "organ" recital. mostly praying for peoples organs; heart, lungs, health issues, I'm sure as a pastor you know what i mean.
The following is from his book "fresh encounters; experiencing transformation through united worship based prayer"
Our pastors minister in a prayerless, success - oriented culture.
"Man of prayer" no longer ranks high on the typical list of desirable traits for the local church pastor. Usually, the driven, over-achieving, "can-do" person is most admired in our society - and our churches. Recently, I was in Utah teaching a prayer seminar at a state-wide church leadership conference. After my session, a man approached m explaining that he was the chairman of the pastoral search committee for a congregation in that area. He pulled out a list of more than 85 desirable attributes for their next pastor. the inventory had been compiled through a recent survey of the congregation. many of the qualities centered on communication skills, management ability, pleasant personality, and strong pastoral care interests. Nowhere on the list was there any mention of the priority of prayer as an essential characteristic for the new pastor. American society tends to value strong, natural leadership, dynamic programming (and I would add dynamic personalities), entertaining services, and impressive technology. The idea of a pastor locked away in extended prayer does not strike the average churchgoer as a mark of effective (and I would add efficient) leadership. Some church members think it wastes time if the pastor spends energy attending prayer meetings. Many pastors realize this and decide not to go against the grain. Fresh Encounters; p 57-58, Nav Press, 2008.
so yes, prayer should be a quiet, unseen thing, but I'm not sure if it's happening at any substantial level, and the stress signs from the possible lack thereof are starting to become apparent (one sign being the "unhealthy culture in leadership") . Something is amiss. Are we willing to admit that might be part of the problem? or at least look into the possibility that it's a concern, or are we going to resist? In Moses' welcome speech, he shared how the pastor at the church in Korea spent 3 hrs/day in prayer... I think we would see significant change if we even have an hour/day (average) by every pastor/leader in the denom (survey results: 85% of pastors pray less than 15 min/day) http://www.worldwideprayer.com/pastorsstatistics.html ;
survey results of 1050 presbyterian and reformed pastors: 26% describe their relationship with Jesus as healthy as in having regular devotions and felt they were adequately fed spiritually
- .http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=36562
Are you familiar with Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians? They are some of my prayer heroes. I would love to see a study of them added to teaching our confessions =)
and I will check into what it takes to be involved at the classis level... again, thx for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to read mine.
Posted in: What's In A Name? [VIDEO]
That is encouraging... so I will encourage (and challenge) you back... I look forward to singing their next song in our church worship service =)!!
I recently suggested to the synod "contest" initiators, that maybe we could challenge our members to compose and write a worship song and the top ones would be published in the next song book, and also maybe be invited (with costs covered) to the next worship symposium to lead "their" song during worship.
I did not mean to sound critical, but only to encourage (and/or challenge) us all to keep moving to higher levels of worship, where Jesus is lifted up continually... "harp and bowl" worship (harp = music and bowl = prayers) based on Rev. 5:8. There are times the Holy Spirt "downloads" new songs as the worship team (not at our church, but at the local prayer center with diverse denominations) is singing... but these are usually in times of continual worship of 2 or more hours... when we have worshipped a straight 24/7 , we have had amazing testimonies of breakthrough...
I know God has a sense of humor and can use any song, Christian or secular to "speak" to someone's heart, so I do not want to limit Him by defining what's worship, because what is worship for one, isn't necessarily the case for the next depending on a multitude of reasons... One funny example of this in my life, was a few months ago, I was at a Hillsong United concert and before the concert they had misc. songs playing, and one was "All you need is love"... this struck me as funny (and the LORD emphasizing love to me), because our pastor had just emphasized the importance of love, with the point of without love, everything is a waste and fruitless...
So I am praying for the release of many new songs from your area, and our denomination... I see it as an untapped oil well, with rich "oil" that will flow forth via the Holy Spirit (I'm sure you know oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit)... You mention harnessing it correctly... with the Holy Spirit as your Guide and counselor, you can't go wrong... so keep listening to Him, and again, excited for what God is doing and going to do with this generation and looking forward to those new songs...
Posted in: Clearly Comic Relief - Maybe
I too get a little skeptical/snarky when people use words like "surely", "clearly", and "thus", like it so obvious to anyone with a brain, and therefore a foregone conclusion, and you would have to be pretty dense to think anything other than what they have so "clearly" presented. +
=)
Aye Aye ban any from of the word "clear" for discussion...hahahaha...
Posted in: Intentionally Diverse and Unified
I am so glad that God does not look at outward appearances but at the heart... let's try His way and ask for His eyes to see each other with and not use our human ways of "organizing" and defining each other... Let's ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in who should be selected for leadership positions as is done in Acts 13:1-3, and Acts 14:23... He WILL still do that if we would but pray, fast and listen....then obey...or is that just too mystical for us western trained intellectuals?
Posted in: Intentionally Diverse and Unified
yes...I think in all the scriptural references, the leaders did a first round selection of possible "nominees", based on a number of criteria... then asked the Holy Spirit to further select, or in the case of Acts 6:3 by knowing/discerning who was filled with the Holy Spirit... so, now how do we tell who is filled with the Holy Spirit? often it seems it can be a popularity type contest or based on their business "success" or natural giftedness/abilities.... or some other indicator like ethnicity or intellect ("it will require our best minds and some solid study..." June 2011 Banner editorial; p10)... but we don't go into the Spirit filled question, or do we assume every believer is Spirit filled men and women of prayer? or do we specifically ask about their prayer life and their relationship with Jesus? I find many are quite defensive when asked specifically about their prayer life, if it's asked at all.
Our country (the US) has had the best and the brightest and look at the mess we have made... our denomination has had the best and the brightest, and here's another quote from the same editorial, p 10 again.... "The changes made to make our denomination more efficient have caused more problems than they have solved."
that is what happens when we are not Spirit led, and instead use our human understanding ( a business model) to run our denomination... we would have said all our leaders have been Spirit led, full of wisdom in the past, yet something's amiss...
My intent is not to be critical, my heart breaks for our denomination, I've been a part of it all my life...but we have some serious concerns where some things are not as it should be...
the best minds and spirit filled are not always synomynous... they can be, but we need the gift - discerning of the spirits, which is much more than just discernment...
Posted in: Intentionally Diverse and Unified
after listening to the intro on Moses Chung, and Moses speech, that is what I'm talking about for selecting leaders....... the search committee said, "God spoke to us and said, this is the person..." after compiling a pool of potentials... then the confirmation of Moses, his mom's dream, his wife' dream (which was in an article I read somewhere), as well as my spirit resonating with his heart for prayer, I know he gets prayer... I have no doubt, God has him exactly where He wants him.
my very specific prayer is that God will raise up Spirit led men and women of prayer for leadership in our denomination.. many will say "of course prayer is important" and "try hard" to pray, but he gets it... so, when we try to orchestrate it through human "goals", we miss God's beautiful orchestration, or doubt it's God, because we might think, well, we're just trying to fulfill the mandate. God, help us all to hear You speak to us...
Posted in: What's In A Name? [VIDEO]
with all the talk of diversity and unity at Synod, here are two beautiful expressions that I would love to see happen at some level in our denomination... I'm praying into what that will look like, and waiting for God's leading to move forward in our community with this...but in the meantime enjoy, and be inspired!!
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FB1B9CNU this one is by a Baptist group in Houston, so " neighbors" to the Sunrise church... ...beautiful Easter dance with 2000 believers in downtown Houston... I think I cried the first dozen times I watched it..
http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir
cool virtual choir with 2000 "videos" from around the world
Posted in: Is it Important for Youth to Attend Church with Their Parents?
I have been very encouraged by seeing young people (and in my case many in their 20's) with a heart to worship Him more...the local prayer center I am involved with, has 7-10 worship and prayer missionaries - most in their 20's - who spend 10-40 hours a week in worship and prayer...One friend in this age group was asked what she liked to do in her spare time...Her response was - "worship God", and she does.
I sense that God is putting a fire in this generations heart for worship, and that we, as families and churches, need to pray for Him to lead us into additional times of worship where this generation has the opportunity to express themselves under the direction of the Holy Spirit in the worship, instead of almost exclusively being directed by adults. I sense a "chomping at the bit" from the youth to be more involved in the worship. It is a very powerful experience to see how the Holy Spirit orchestrates a worship gathering, both through the planning (it's not just picking favorite songs), and then through His spontaneous promptings during the service, and to hear the testimonies of how the Holy Spirit "spoke" to different people in different ways through the worship, and often in the same song.
2 different people, within 15 minutes of each other, at 2 different gatherings expressed their excitement over an opportunity to worship for 2 hours - extended times of worship...again, I see this heart for worship being stirred up, particularly in this generation, but we have to ask the LORD for His guidance on what this will look like (the verse the LORD put on my heart this week is Is. 28:29 NKJV - This comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance)...
I know in our community we have an abundance of gifted musicians and I believe the reason is for increased worship. We need to steward these giftings, as in help them have opportunities to use them for the Kingdom... it reminds me of the tabernacle of David, where worship was going on day and night at the temple. In Acts 15, God shares that He is restoring David's tabernacle/tent (depending on version) - think Days of Elijah v2 - and these are the days of His servant, David, rebuilding a temple of praise! We are all hardwired - designed, with a need that what we do is meaningful, and worship is!
We have seen several beautiful ministries flow out of the prayer center that were birthed from the worship and prayer times... We have experienced incredible testimonies of Divine timing that could not be humanly orchestrated...the statistical probability of the convergence of events is basically impossible... we have testimonies of salvations and healings, we have seen abortion rates drop and adoptions double in our county, we have seen our unemployment rate be one of the lowest in the state, if not the lowest, we have seen Godly leaders elected in our county- in a state (WA) that is known for being very liberal, and one of the least churched states in the US, these were not easy wins, but Praise God, He is making them happen as we labor in prayer with Him, and offer up our hearts in worship to Him... and we have seen beautiful growth in believer's walk with the LORD, where their faith is becoming a delight instead of a duty...they're growing closer in their relationship with King Jesus... HALLELUJAH!!!
LORD, restore Your tabernacle of Praise, where Your Name is being lifted up 24/7...
Posted in: Is it Important for Youth to Attend Church with Their Parents?
One of the "spheres' we pray for specifically is for the family unit... the family is under intense attack from the enemy particularly the males (one of the answers to prayer is this new movie "Courageous" coming out by the same church that did Facing the Giants and Fireproof, it's about men taking up and walking in the authority of their God given roles), and every time the enemy can break up the family, keeping the God ordained family unit from a meaningful, Kingdom focused activity such as worshipping and praying together, he scores in some way. Look at the evening family meal, how rare that is in many homes... and yet studies have shown that is one of the key aspects to a healthy childhood.
My husband and I will fight for the honor to worship together as a family. We will also encourage them to find worship opportunities in addition to the Sunday services and allow them freedom to express their worship in our church. I am very thankful that our church incorporates the youth regularly into the service... my daughter (she's 5) will dance in the back of church - there's a little nook that she can dance freely in, so she's not distracting anyone... at other worship gatherings outside the CRC, the kids dance with flags and/or instruments or just dance. We have tables set up for kids to draw - not just busy work, but what we call "prophetic art" during the service as worship is going on... at one that is specifically for kids, they can sing at the mic. (there are some guidelines of course). We pray that as our kids are heading into the teen years, they will have experienced God via His Holy Spirit in many ways already (they already have amazing testimonies of promptings through scripture that the Holy Spirit helped them use for guidance in various situations, we share with them how God has helped us financially in unextpected ways, so "seeing" God work is pretty normal for them, I will be talking to someone and they will encourage me to share a confirmation of something the LORD has put on my heart earlier, or an answer to prayer, my daughter (5) will ask to drive by the casino so we can pray for all the people that are having their money "stolen", and that it will be a place where people pray to God instead). Kids' worship is very powerful, based on Ps. 8:2... out of the mouths of children and infants, I have ordained (strong) praise because of Your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger... it makes the enemy flee...
so, let's pray for Holy Spirit inspired opportunites in our services and outside our services, to increase the worship from children/youth. and also pray that the family unit will be strenghthened through worship time and prayer time together...
Posted in: Is it Important for Youth to Attend Church with Their Parents?
Sorry Ken, didn't even think about the political aspect... there are good things about each political group and there are negative things about each, so let's pray that God brings forth the goodness in each, and pushes back what is not from Him in each...that He purges, cleanses and redeems these systems of politics and the government...but of course, may He start with our hearts...